So I know I'm always harping on how great the 1950's are as visual inspiration, but now I'm going to to attempt to prove it and dole out some concept art. So I'm playing with mech designs right now/trying to learn how to paint metallic surfaces.
Major revelation: They are impossible to paint in the absence of an environment because as long as something is reflective, it's reflecting its environment. I think it's super beneficial to lay out a really simplistic idea of what the color in your environment is so you can temper the local color of the reflective object (be it steel gray or turquoise) with those other colors in mind, making them warmer or cooler as appropriate.
It seems like something I should already know by now but I consistently try to paint reflective surfaces without establishing in my mind what's around it.
eth.
Absolutely love these concept posts. The 1950s style mech is pretty awesome. I really want to see this world developed further. Mech concept design in my mind is really difficult because there are sooo many of them out there. Its like trying to design a unique looking dragon. I think the mech concepts taht stand out to me are the ones that really dig deep into function of the machine. Still super fun though. Sorry for the lack in posts/comments I have been pretty tied up with things lately. Hopefully I will have stuff to post here in a bit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback Dustin. I appreciate your insight into unique mech design, it makes a lot of sense. I'll have to give a lot of extra consideration to that. I'm still riding off the high from Pacific Rim. :)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing your new stuff!
Great to see some sketch stuff Eric! I am still pretty excited about pacific rim too, and like i said with you robo head/helmet piece, this guy has great economy of effort to it. Not really a mass a detail, but sells and communicates all the major points effectively. Concept art in a nutshell...
ReplyDeleteI also lament how hard it is to design truly original robots, there really is just a mountain of examples to cover the range of shapes and sizes, and I think Dustin is right on the money about giving it a context to exist in, like a specific purpose, or cultural reasons for its shape. I think Pacific rim did a pretty good job at giving all the robots enough character to stand on there own, especially cherno alpha! love that robot and cant wait for the toy to come out!
bwahahaha I've been having the same problem with metallic surfaces. I keep working on all white back grounds and then when it comes to dropping down highlights and the details to make them look reflective I'm just like....."aaaaaahhhhh.. well lets just add color from the clothes and skin? maybe thats enough?" and then it comes out just looking unbalanced -_-
ReplyDeleteAnyways, these look great and some of them are really pushing the envelope.
I agree with Fluke, It's great to see some of your sketch stuff! I also agree with him on the idea of a chernoalpha action figure :)